Urge Surfing
Worksheet

ADHD EXECUTIVE FUNCTION TOOLS

A structured reflection tool for mapping the anatomy of an urge —
from trigger to peak to fade — and building the awareness to let it pass.

Where This Tool Helps

Most people with ADHD are familiar with the experience but not the map. An urge arrives — to check the phone, to leave the task, to eat, to scroll — and the immediate question is whether to act on it or resist it. What gets skipped is everything in between: noticing where the urge came from, watching it intensify, and observing that it eventually loses force whether you act or not.

Urge surfing is built on a simple but non-obvious fact: urges follow a wave pattern. They have a trigger, a rise, a peak, and a fall. The peak always feels like it will continue indefinitely — that is the moment most people act, not because the urge is still growing but because they assume it will. In practice, urges that are observed rather than acted on typically fall within a few minutes. The worksheet exists to make that arc visible.

For executives with ADHD, the most common application is digital interruptions — the pull of a notification mid-task, the impulse to context-switch before something is finished. But the same structure applies to any pattern where the gap between trigger and action is shorter than it needs to be.

The prompts below are sequenced to follow the wave. Work through them in order, not by jumping to the management strategies first.

How to Use This Worksheet

  1. Identify the trigger first. Be specific — a notification, a difficult emotion, a particular environment, a thought. “I felt stressed” is less useful than “my manager sent a message while I was mid-task.”
  2. Describe what you noticed in your body before you named the feeling. Physical sensations often precede the urge itself. Naming them gives you more lead time next time.
  3. Track when the urge started and stopped — or estimate if this is a reflection after the fact. Most people are surprised how short the peak actually was.
  4. Answer the “what happens if I don’t act” prompt honestly. The answer is usually that the discomfort passes. Naming that explicitly counters the feeling that action is the only way out.
  5. Complete “Remind yourself” and “I can manage this by” in that order. The reminder grounds you; the management strategy is what to do with the grounding.
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Urge Surfing Worksheet

Trigger
person, place,
thought, or feeling
→
Rise
intensity
builds
→
Peak
maximum intensity,
feels endless
→
Fall
intensity fades
on its own

Identify and describe the trigger:

Notice your body reacting — thoughts, feelings, physical sensations. Do not try to change or suppress them. Describe what you observe:

When did the urge start? When did it stop (or ease)?

What will happen if you do not change or get rid of your urges?

Remind yourself that:

I can manage this trigger by:

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Before Your Next Session

Reflection Prompts

Looking at your trigger: is this the same trigger that tends to derail you in focused work, or a different one? What is the pattern across the last few weeks?

What was the gap between when the urge peaked and when it actually faded? What does that tell you about how long you actually need to hold out?

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